_CELEBRATED TRIALS_ AND JOHN THURTELL Borrow's first book was _Faustus_, and his second was _Romantic Ballads_, the one being published, as we have seen, in 1825, the other in 1826.

This chronology has the appearance of ignoring the _Celebrated Trials_, but then it is scarcely possible to count _Celebrated Trials_[65] as one of Borrow's books at all.

It is largely a compilation, exactly as the _Newgate Calendar_ and Howell's _State Trials_ are compilations.

In his preface to the work Borrow tells us that he has differentiated the book from the _Newgate Calendar_[66] and the _State Trials_[67] by the fact that he had made considerable compression.

This was so, and in fact in many cases he has used the blue pencil rather than the pen--at least in the earlier volumes.